This will be a short post as it’s Friday and my attention span is dwindling….BUT! I wanted to start a little series called “Food Foto Friday” wherein I show you my latest experiments in food photography.

Note: I am NOT a professional photographer! I’m learning. But I’m hoping that my learning experiences will help you. Or at least interest you. You can let me know.

First up: Experiments in Natural Light with Lana Bars.

I first posted about Lana Energy Bars here. And recently I made about 18 more batches so that I could bring them to practice with me and share them with my team. I used this opportunity to take some photos and practice what I learned at the House of Brinson Food Photography workshop.

What I learned at House of Brinson: You can take awesome photos with just natural light. Even if there isn’t that much of it.

What I learned in my apartment: This is true.

Consider the below comparison image:

In the image on the left, I turned on the fancy-pants light with umbrella diffuser thingie I bought at Adorama. Holy red overtones, Batman! That seriously looks terrible. Or at least requires some serious Photoshop color correcting. Which I don’t feel like doing, people.

On the right-hand image, I turned off all the lights in my apartment. I mean ALL of them. And put this tray on the floor. Not extremely close to the window. The window is on the left side and really doesn’t let in all that much light to begin with. But look at the improvement. NO PHOTOSHOP! None, I promise.

Also, House of Brinson taught me to love my tripod, which I now do. I attached my camera and pointed it to the floor – at the tray of bars. No shaking – which is great because I had to slow the shutter speed WAY down to let in enough light.

So there you have it. Natural light is better. The tripod is my friend, and there are energy bars for all (literally):

There are so many memorable scenes from The Big Lebowski, but my favorite is the intro scene in which the Dude, expertly played by Jeff Bridges, cruises an LA supermarket in his signature bathrobe for the sole purpose of purchasing half and half for his White Russians. He takes a sniff of the carton, and then pays for it with a check.

For those of you unfamiliar, a White Russian is a drink made with half and half, Kahlua and vodka served over ice. It’s sweet and creamy and cold, like a milkshake, just not thick. And I love them.

Recently, I was in South Beach, competing with my team, Full Throttle, in the Nautica Triathlon. Post-race, all the team members were relaxing poolside, replenishing lost calories with a variety of beverages.

One of my teammates passed me a blended ice drink. when I asked what it was, she told me it was a Vonder Slide, which was essentially a White Russian made into a blended, frozen drink, invented by and named after another teammate, Karen.

Upon sampling the beverage, and also drinking someone else’s in its entirety (sorry, Jess), I shouted over to Karen, holding up my cup, “The Vonder Slide is going on he blog!” This was met with what I understood to be enthusiasm at the time, and so here it is:

The Vonder Slide

I decided to make a slightly healthier version (ha!) with almond milk instead of half and half. Don’t get me wrong, I love my half and half. But I thought I would try a little something different. Turns out, the almond flavor goes very nicely with the Kahlua. It also makes the Vonder Slide accessible to all my lactose intolerant readers – bonus!

It’s John’s Birthday today, and while he might kill me for doing this (if he can catch me), he is 30 today!

I thought I would take this time to tell you a few things about John and why he is an awesome brother:

1. He fields my various witty remarks (anxiety attacks, pleas for more blog content, harassment about his weekend plans) that I shoot at him via gchat with apparent ease and only occasionally ignores me.

2. John has two general reactions:

Positive reaction: “Great.” Sometimes things can be “glorious,” and then you know it’s really great.

Negative reaction: “S*&T!” The delivery of this remark is always the same regardless of the magnitude of his disapproval.

3. I can only sometimes detect the fear in his eyes when I tell him my latest crazy scheme.

4. He gives dating advice! My personal favorites are these:
a. Do as I say, not as I do.
b. Do not laugh excessively at a dude’s jokes.
c. Stop dancing like that.
d. No fear, naw mean?Side note: I literally have no idea what he means. Especially about the dancing.

5. Regardless of what is going on, what we had been talking about previously, John will divert my attention to Vespas. I receive links to them all day long accompanied by his Vespa negotiating tactics:

“Let’s low ball these people and take no prisoners: We’re willing to pay $2400 over 6 months. Throw in the helmets and the automatic, in-dashboard cannoli dispenser or there is no deal.”

6. He will practice his golf swing, (sans clubs) anywhere. In public, out in a bar, on the sidewalk, etc.

7. My dog, Toby hates him. But John will walk him for me anyway.

8. When I moved back from California, he let me sleep on his couch on weekends for a whole year and hang out with his friends. I got very good at beer pong.

9. He likes to sing “Shout” in public. To rave reviews.

10. John used to eat some weird stuff when he was younger. One of his favorites was, “grilled cheese dunked in yogurt.” this was a classic American cheese sandwich which he dunked in Dannon vanilla yogurt as he ate it.

Gross.

However! I have updated this gastronomic disaster and created something truly delicious. So in honor of John and his birthday, I give you Comte and Scallion Grilled Cheese on Focaccia Bread with Honey Mustard Yogurt Dipping Sauce.

What You Need:

For the sandwich

4 slices Focaccia bread, sliced about 1″ thick

Comte cheese, sliced thinly: enough to cover the top of two of the Focaccia slices. I used a “Tewksbury” cheese from Valley Shepherd Creamery that I bought at the Union Square Greenmarket.

Heat the 2 tablespoons of butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the chopped scallions and sauté until they are soft, about 7 minutes.

Take your bread slices and one by one, dunk them in the pan of butter and scallions, pressing both sides into the mixture.

In the meantime, heat up the broiler of your oven.

Once you have coated both sides of all four pieces of bread, place the sliced cheese on top of two of the slices. Top these cheesed-up ones with the remaining two pieces of Focaccia and let simmer in the pan for about 2 minutes. Flip and simmer another 2 minutes for the flip side.

By this time, your broiler should be nice and hot. Transfer the sandwiches to a cookie sheet and pop them in the broiler so they get nice and toasty. But watch out for that broiler – don’t let your cheesy masterpieces burn!

Remove from the oven and serve immediately with the honey mustard yogurt dipping sauce on the side.

Finally, in honor of John’s birthday, we are giving away a prize. All you have to do is wish John a happy 30th in the comments of this post and you will be entered to win a prize.

In other news, I’ll be traveling to South Beach today for my first Triathlon of the season. You can also get the recipe for my home made energy bars at that link. Tweeting will be light as I don’t want to take out my pre-race panic attacks on you lovely people.

Come Monday or Tuesday we might have some more BIG NEWS. So stay tuned. And we will also be continuing our Meals on Reels program. Don’t forget to send us your favorite movie/food scenes! Post ’em in the comments!

It’s no secret Elana and I love our movies. So, for the next week or so, we are going to be presenting some of our favorite movie scenes that have a focus on food, followed by a top 15 list. We will also be combining a feature with either a recipe or a restaurant review related to the food.

There is really only one qualification, but it’s an important one: the food needs to play an integral part in the movie scene. It cannot just be lurking in the background, or part of a good scene at a dinner table or restaurant.

Take Heat for example. Trust me, I’ve been thinking of every way possible to work in the Pacino/Deniro diner scene from Heat into this list, but despite it taking place within the confines of an eating establishment, the scene really never defers to food at any point. The same goes for other close calls, like at Tommy’s mother’s house in Goodfellas; Food is there in full force, but it never quite becomes the focus.

In light of the foregoing, we now commence our random teaser list, followed ultimately by our final countdown. Elana will kick things off while I continue to kick it in Italy.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Elana here! I am going to begin with a new-to-me film: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. There is an excellent scene in which Scott makes “dinner” for his new crush: a dinner comprised solely of garlic bread. I have to say, this is my kind of meal (CARBS!). It also happens to be Italian in nature and very easy to make.

First, you should watch the scene:

Bread makes you fat??!? I love that. Ok, So in true John and Elana style, I will offer you TWO recipes:

Take the garlic halves and run them along the surface of the bread (both sides!) – almost like you are buttering your bread with garlic.

Then actually butter the bread (both sides again!) with the softened butter! Place the buttered, garlicked bread slices on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle them with a little sea salt as well.

Toast just a few minutes on each side – remember to keep an eye on that broiler, it works quickly.

Once your toasts are toasty, take ’em out and sprinkle with the chopped parsley.

Serve to your new girlfriend with the seven evil exes. The garlic breath will probably help you defeat them.

What To Do:For the roasted garlic:Heat up the oven to 350 degrees.
Take a head of garlic and chop off the pointy part. Place it in a piece of foil and drizzle with olive oil, like so:

Then cover the garlic completely with the foil. Pop it in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes or until the garlic cloves are soft and easily pierced with a a knife. It will look sorta like this:

Squeeze out the garlic cloves from their papery skins and plop them into a food processor or blender. If you lack both of these implements, you can mash them up with a fork.

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the pinch of salt and blend it all together.

Heat up the broiler of your oven.

Cut 1 inch slices of the focaccia bread. I used a Scratchbread focaccia that I purchased at the Brooklyn Flea over the weekend.

Using a knife, smear some roasted garlic paste onto your slices of bread. Drizzle with a little olive oil and pop them in the broiler to brown. Just a few minutes – remember how speedily-fast that broiler cooks!

Sprinkle with a few sprigs of rosemary and serve (with extra roasted garlic paste on the side, please!).

This one will DEFINITELY help you defeat evil exes. And everyone else too.

I had a special request – a commission, if you will, for some edible artwork. The project outlines were the following:

1. Create an espresso granita like the one a friend had sampled in Tuscany.

2. Whipped cream too, please.

Keep in mind that I had not been in Tuscany with my friend at the time she sampled this delicacy. So I had to ask for lots of details because I was flying taste-bud blind.

Was the espresso flavor strong? Yes.

What was the consistency of the ice? Like little chips, all in different sizes so you could crunch them.

What about the whipped cream? Not too sweet. Just a tiny bit to give a little contrast to the espresso ice.

I began with some research. It’s pretty easy to make granita (really). You really just need to freeze stuff, and break it up with a fork during the freezing process every now and again so you don’t get one giant ice cube. One giant ice cube does not a granita make.

Then I brewed some up using my French Press. I like the way coffee tastes brewed in a French Press. It’s STRONGER! I used 5 heaping tablespoons.

Meanwhile, I boiled some water (3 cups) with about 1/8 cup of sugar in a pot. Once it was all heated up, I poured it into my French Press, waiting the appropriate amount of time (3-5 minutes), and then PRESSED.

Then, I poured this lovely concoction into a pan and popped it into the freezer. I tried to give it a stir and break up the ice with a fork every half hour or so. Eventually, I had to use something stronger than a fork (I bent the fork), so I opted for some tongs (please picture a ridiculous scene of me smashing coffee flavored ice with metal tongs). I did this periodic smash until the stuff started to look like this:

And then I made some whipped cream. Initially, I made the whipped cream without sugar. But just a tiny bit of confectioners sugar adds a whole lotta goodness.

Gather 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and 1 1/2 tablespoons of confectioners sugar. Put them in a mixing bowl and with a hand-held mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the cream and sugar until it’s whipped and soft peaks form.

Scoop some granita into a bowl or fancy glass (I used retro snow cone holders) and top with whipped cream.

Now for the ridiculous part of the story….you knew there was one, right?

I was meeting my friend after work for her to try this granita and give me the final word. But how to transport it? It’s ice, it melts. So, I:

Brewed the coffee at home.

Poured it into one of my insulated Camelback water bottles.

Transported it to work.

Transferred it to a baking pan and put it in the office freezer.

Then from time to time I would get up from my desk to go smash ice chunks. It was actually a very therapeutic workplace activity.

Before I left work, I whipped up the cream and transferred the granita BACK into the Camelback (I was hoping this would prevent it from melting). Then I walked to a bar, commandeered us some fancy glasses and served it up.

Final determination: success. The espresso granita is crunchy, strong and slightly bitter which pairs nicely with the smooth, creamy and ever-so slightly sweetened whipped cream.

Note: The first time I made the cream, I made it without confectioners sugar, but all the tasters agreed that a lil’ bit o’ sugar greatly improves it.

We have a special treat for you today. My friend Erin teaches 7th grade at the Maywood Avenue School in Maywood, NJ. We organized a writing contest with her students. Each one had to write a food-related post on their blogs that they maintain for class. Erin sent us the submissions, and we chose three winners.

All the posts were truly outstanding – you have a talented class, Erin! Our first winner is Jessica. We have transcribed her post below, and added our own images:

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Cream Cheese and Jellyby Jessica

How to make a jelly and cream cheese sandwich? Now I bet you’re wondering if that’s even a real, edible combination. Don’t worry, it’s tasty! I’ve eaten these sandwiches my whole life. I have no idea how I discovered this combo. My mom showed it to me. It’s really good for breakfast. Now, here’s what you need to make this random sandwich.

Bread (I like Wonder Bread because it just makes your sandwich even better.)

Jelly (I prefer Smucker’s Concord Grape Jelly, because I never tried any other jelly.)

Cream Cheese (Philadelphia Cream Cheese works well. )

PlateTwo knivesToaster

Now once you have all those things, you’re ready to make an awesome snack!

Step One: Take two pieces of bread and toast them. But make sure you don’t make the bread too crunchy, unless you like crunchy bread.

Step Two: Carefully take out the two pieces of bread out of the toaster and put it on the plate. Also take out the cream cheese and jelly.

Step Three: Get the two knives and spread jelly on one piece of bread, and cream cheese on the other. Don’t put too much jelly or cream cheese. When you put too much jelly, the sandwich gets soggy. Then when you put too much cream cheese, you won’t be able to taste the jelly. So make sure they’re equal.

Step Four: Get the two pieces of bread and put it together. You can do this any way you want. You can smash it on, gently place it on, or just put them together like a normal person would.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE CREATED TOMORROW’S LUNCH, TONIGHT’S SNACK, OR THIS MORNING’S BREAKFAST!

Sadly, I don’t have a finishing product picture. That’s because it’s your job to see it yourself! Feel free to make this sandwich, and stab a little, cute umbrella into it. Mini umbrellas are cool!

I hope you enjoyed this step-by-step guide! I think this isn’t difficult to make, so you should really try it!

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Thank you, Jessica! Personally, I forgot how much I liked Cream Cheese and Jelly sandwiches. I used to eat them all the time. I enjoyed the ones I made for these photos. And of course, in true John and Elana style, we had to trick out Jessica’s recipe just a bit. We cut little rounds out of the toasted bread with cookie cutters and used a few different kinds of jam to make tiny tea sandwiches: